Elysia crispata

Taxobox
name = "Elysia crispata"

---

image_width = 225px
image_caption = Lettuce sea slug
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
subclassis = Orthogastropoda
superordo = Heterobranchia
ordo = Opisthobranchia
subordo = Sacoglossa
familia = Elysiidae
genus = "Elysia"
species = "E. crispata"
binomial = "Elysia crispata"

"Elysia crispata", commonly known as the lettuce sea slug, is a large and colorful species of sea slug, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk.

The lettuce slug resembles a nudibranch, but it is not closely related to that order of gastropods. It is instead a sacoglossan.

Distribution

This species lives in the tropical parts of the western Atlantic, the Caribbean faunal zone.

Description

This species is called the lettuce slug because it is often green in color, and it always has a very frilly edge to its parapodia. This makes the slug resemble the curly kinds of lettuce, such as the lollo rosso variety.

The lettuce slug is extremely variable in color: it can also be blue or very pale with red lines or yellow lines.

Anatomy

This sea slug (in common with some other sacoglossans) has algal chloroplasts (from its seaweed food sources) still functioning within its tissues, providing it with sugars. This unusual phenomenon is known as kleptoplasty.

References